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January 30, 2018

26 ways to success - T for Teamwork - " Teamwork – Together Everyone Achieves More " article published in The Hans India on 17th June 2016

T for Teamwork

Teamwork – Together Everyone Achieves More

Individual
talent gets magnified many times over through the collective lenses of
effective team work. Teamwork is theprocessofworkingtogether with agroupof people in order to achieve a common goal.
Teamwork is often the most crucial differentiating factor in abusiness,
as it is often necessary and imperative forcolleaguestoworkwell together, trying their best in
any circumstance in a given project or work.

People
cooperateusingtheir individual and group skillsandprovide
constructivefeedback.
It is quite possible that many of the individuals will have personal conflicts
or differences of opinion but they all pull together to achieve a common goal.
It is one for all and all for one and the common goal is what drives them
together.

Symphony: The best illustration of teamwork among a group of
people is asymphony, a musical composition in the western classical
music. Symphony is a work usually
consisting of multiple musicians playing in distinct sections. Symphonies are
scored by various musical instruments by musicians who altogether can be an astonishing
30–100 in number.

Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain
just the notated music for their instrument. A symphony in the true sense is
sounding together. In an awe inspiring live performance one can watch music
played by 100 musicians flawlessly and without a false note. So if a group of
people work with perfect team work and harmony they would produce work as great
as any work of a Mozart or a Zubin Mehta!

Mumbai
Dabbawalas: is a world famous group
from Mumbai who epitomize the concept of team work. Dabbawalas are a group of people who are part of a delivery system
that collects lunch boxes from
the residences of workers in the late morning, delivers the lunches to the
workplace and returns the empty boxes to the worker's residence the same day by
late afternoon. They charge Rs 250/- per month. The lunch boxes are handled an astonishing
2,00,000 times a day.

85% of Mumbai Dabbawalas are illiterate
and even the literate ones have only minimal education. They get Rs 8,000/- as
monthly salary. Mumbai Dabbawalas are a perfect example of team work as there
is deep understanding about their work. Every one acts as a picker, sorter, transporter
and deliver of tiffin boxes. There is nothing called my work or your work. It
is all our work.

They have devised systems keeping
their lack of education and their working style in mind. A rudimentary yet very
effective method is used to number the tiffin boxes. They use all methods of transport
that include walking, bicycles, trains (often the most important) and push
carts. They effectively use the travel time in the train to sort and resort the
tiffin boxes. Uniquely dressed in sparkling clean white clothes and wearing a white
Gandhi cap, Dabbawalas are the cynosure of all eyes in the hustling, bustling
Mumbai city.

The remarkable thing about Dabbawalas
is that even though they get paid so less they are happy and excited about the work
they do. They take pride that they feed many hungry clients, their own home food.
They are of the opinion that feeding hungry men is serving god. Mumbai Dabbawalas
have their own lunch only after finishing all deliveries. They deal with the
tiffin boxes with utmost respect and it is said that the Dabbawalas would take
care to see that his foot does not touch the tiffin boxes even by an accident.

Come rain, storm, winds or any other
natural calamity one can still find the Dabbawalas solidly working his way into
offices to deliver tiffins into the hands of eager and waiting customers. Hats
off to the Dabbawalas for showing us a perfect example of teamwork and service
with a smile.

Leicester city winning the English premiership
title: The most talked
about and the most astonishing display teamwork ever has been demonstrated in
this year edition of EPL (English Premiership league). Leicester City odds were
a staggering 5000:1 to win the 2016 EPL. The odds were so high that they were
even higher than the odds of a sighting a lockless monster. Put in another
words it was more likely that one can see a Lockless monster in UK rather than
Leicester City winning the EPL. But that was what transpired before the unbelieving
eyes of the world.

It is not that
Leicester won a freak finals or a single match. They consistently performed over
a grueling ten month season and sustained their consistency over 38 mentally
and physically draining matches. They took the title from their much fancied
and stinking rich rivals like Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal.
They went on to prove a point that in a team sport like football it is all about
that raw passion and impeccable team work that matter not precise team formations
often played out with ruthless player transfers from other teams. No wonder Leicester
title triumph is being talked about as the
greatest achievement of any team sports EVER. Underline the word Team sport!

Leicester has talented soccer players, but
no superstars. The players in Leicester City, on their own probably were not
going to achieve success individually but they proved that collectively they
were unbeatable and they pulled off the unimaginable! Leicester’s winning coach
Ranieri said “Everybody understands the movement before they are doing the
movement”

Teamwork
and togetherness are very essential for any success. This was the reason why
Leicester City was so successful. Everyone understands what the purpose was and
what they are trying to achieve. Everyone understands their role in achieving
the collective purpose. Everyone acknowledged and appreciated others for the
work they do in achieving the common purpose. Everyone was rewarded for
achieving goals and targets. Everyone stayed focused and targeted the collective
goal and no one individual was bigger than the group and the group achieved the
dream result.

Let us now look at qualities needed to be a
great team player. This is of paramount importance as Indians are often accused
of being Prima Donnas (being brilliant alone) and not being great team players.
People supporting this argument put forward examples as how India is brilliant
in individual sports like Chess, Billiards, snooker, Tennis and Badminton. They
also remind us that apart from cricket, India does not do well in sports where
teamwork, collaboration and cooperation are very important to succeed.

1.Believe in the
team: Everyone
in the team should believe in the team and live the dream for which the entire team
was assembled. We have great examples of teams fighting till the very end to achieve
the goal. The Longewala battle of 1971 war (immortalized in the Hindi movie
Border) with Pakistan is a one such example. In the Longewala battle a set of
120 Indian soldiers fought 2000 Pakistani soldiers and 45 tanks. The victorious
Indians saw to that the outpost remained with the Indian army.

2.Know team’s strength
and weaknesses:
Each one in the team should know their own and their team members’ strength and
weaknesses. Playing to own strengths, protecting or shielding weaknesses and
exploiting the weaknesses of the opponents are very much needed. A defensive
team like Germany (in football) plays to its strength and sees that the flashy
free flowing flamboyant Samba style of the Brazilians is countered by its solid
defense.

3.Sum of parts is
more than individual parts: 1+ 1 is not 2, rather is 3, 4 or even 10. The team
when it plays together maximizes on its strengths and appears to be bigger than
what it actually is. The 120 Indian soldiers personal appeared to be ten times
more in number to the Pakistanis in the Longewala war as they were more united
and worked as a well-oiled and well organized team.

4.Praise in public
and scold in private:
It is very important that all the team members understand that everyone is
equal in the team. So it is better that any praise be done in public and any
reprimand be done in private so that the person receiving the reprimand has his
respect intact.

5.Take all the
blame and selflessly share the success: All team members should celebrate the
success of all the team members. The team leader should always be generous in
sharing the success to all concerned. At the same time he takes all the blame.
The team leader is more like a village elder. He commands respect as he is a leader
by choice.

6.Don’t be afraid
of failure:
The team member should never be afraid of failure. Nothing ventured, nothing
gained. Try for the best result and if the result is not forth coming, do a
honest self-appraisal and keep moving forward. No rancour please!

7.Train and be
trained:
All the team members need to be trained and retrained continuously. Teams that succeed
all the time are a myth. A team that succeeds all the time puts in a heavy training
regime to keep itself in battle ready condition for any assignment.

8.Willingness to
help:
Team members should not selfish. They should be willing to help each other. Help
is extended knowing fully well that the receiver might benefit more than giver.
The common goal that needed to be achieved assumes paramount importance and self-interest
is not as important as the team interest and the goal that needs to achieved.

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Dr.M. Anil Ramesh is an M.B.A, PhD from Osmania University, (overall 7th rank, 1st In Marketing stream), Hyderabad, India.
Presently Dr.M.Anil Ramesh is working as Director at Siva Sivani Institute of Management a Premier B-School based at Secunderabad, Telangana State.
Dr.M.Anil Ramesh has 30 years of experience both in Industry and in Academics. Widely read and traveled Dr.M.Anil Ramesh is a Management expert who appeared on many TV talks and shows. Dr.M.Anil Ramesh also writes a popular column in a popular English Daily Newspaper - HANS India.
The views expressed by the author in this blog are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of the institute where he works.
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